"It was magnificent!" she said shortly, with a quickened breath. "I shall get some more by that man."
"Well, you'd better be careful!" He laughed. "I've got some others, but I didn't want to recommend them to you. Lady Fox-Wilton wouldn't exactly approve."
"I don't tell mamma what I read." The girl's young voice sounded sharply beside him in the warm autumnal dusk. "But if you lent me anything you oughtn't to lend me I would never speak to you again!"
Meryon gave a low whistle.
"My goodness! I shall have to mind my p's and q's. I don't know that I ought to have lent you 'Julie de Trécoeur' if it comes to that."
"Why not?" Hester turned her great, astonished eyes upon him. "One might as well not read Byron as not read that."
"Hm—I don't suppose you read all Byron."
He threw her an audacious look.
"As much as I want to," she said, indifferently. "Why aren't you in
Scotland?"
"Because I had to go to London instead. Beastly nuisance! But there was some business I couldn't get out of."